UAE

Yesterday, Mr Trevor Martin Horsley was released from a pretrial detention centre in Russia. His lawyer reported that he was released and was scheduled to fly back to the UK in a matter of hours. His release was ordered after Interpol sent documents from the UAE confirming that Mr Horsley’s criminal charges had been dropped and that the information on a search for him was flawed.

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Ex-Forest Green Rovers chairman, Trevor Horsley was arrested last week when he arrived in Russia to watch a World Cup match. He is wanted in Dubai on fraud charges. Russian authorities arrested Mr Horsley on an INTERPOL Red Notice.

It is believed that the alleged fraud took place in the UAE in 2011. Mr Horsley’s lawyer has confirmed that he had already paid a fine in relation to the fraud, after finding out about legal action against him, when he flew through Qatar, in 2013.

It is believed that he is being held in a pre-trial detention centre. His family back in the UK, have growing fears for his health as he is suffering from lung cancer.

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The Justice Ministry in South Africa is in talks with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to bring the Guptas back to South Africa. The Guptas are three brothers of Indian heritage who moved to South Africa from India in 1993. There, they set up their business empire under the parent company Sahara Group. They have since been closely linked to former President Zuma, and have been accused of money laundering, collusion, fraud, corruption and misappropriating funds including millions of dollars’ worth of public money which was intended to support poor farmers but was directly deposited into Atul Gupta’s personal bank account. In February, the South African authorities raided the businesses and properties belonging to the Guptas which prompted them to leave for UAE. The talks between South Africa and UAE are not aimed at establishing an extradition treaty between the countries, but at reaching a “mutual legal agreement” applicable solely to the Guptas. Both South Africa and UAE want to ensure that the Guptas can be returned to South Africa to face the criminal charges outlined above.

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A Scottish court has blocked the extradition of a 64-year old man wanted by the UAE where he has been sentenced in absentia to 12 months imprisonment for allegedly embezzling $345,000. Garnet Black is said to have taken the money from the bank account of M&M Militzer & Münch LLC, an international logistics company based in Dubai, where he worked as managing director. He says the allegations, made by his former son-in-law, are false and intended to pressure his daughter to return to the UAE, after she fled the son-in-law with their child due to his alleged violence and abuse.

In his ruling, Sheriff Tom Walsh QC found that the UAE had not satisfied the statutory pre-requisite to extradition that it demonstrate free legal aid would be guaranteed to Mr Black if extradited. In addition, Sheriff Walsh found that there was a real risk Mr Black’s Article 3 right against inhuman treatment and Article 6 right to a fair trial may be violated, but rejected the argument that his article 5 right to freedom was at risk of violation.

Key to these findings was that, if extradited, Mr Black was likely to be housed in “the squalid, unhygienic, and overcrowded conditions of Bur Dubai Police Station”, without adequate medical provision, and the significant degree of influence his son-in-law was likely to have over local police as a high-ranking Emirati. In addition, there was no guarantee that Mr Black would be in physical condition to defend himself, and would struggle to do so in any event as a non-Arabic speaker without the guarantee of free legal representation.